The Elevator (December 2018)

Organised by: NTUitiveTheme: CleanTech and Sustainable solutions

Team Abstracts

Traverse TechnologiesTraverse is a geospatial simulation software for renewable energy developers searching and planning for new projects. Users can draw the schematics of their project on a map, click "Run" and immediately receive an estimate of the project's capital cost, revenue and internal rate of return.

Polymeric Resin Additive Paste for long-term high Wettability and Photocatalytic effect
High wettability and photocatalytic effect are crucial elements for achieving self-cleaning surfaces. Self-cleaning surfaces minimise the need for labour intensive and costly cleaning and maintenance services. We have developed a polymeric resin additive paste that enables long-term high wettability and photocatalytic effect. The polymer resin additive paste may be adapted into the raw materials used in the manufacturing phase to achieve long-term high wettability and photocatalytic effect in the product.

Neso Pte. Ltd.We spend more than 90% of our time indoors and it has been clearly documented and assessed in recent research that our personal health and well-being is highly dependent on our directly surrounding environment. For most companies in the service sector, labour costs amount to up to 90% of their total costs and people’s well-being has a significant effect on performance and productivity, hence paying careful attention to maintaining high quality indoor environments should be in all of our interest – both as an individual and as an employer.

With Neso we are making sure that you are spending your time in an environment that keeps you healthy, comfortable and productive. With our data driven approach to delivering exemplary indoor air quality and thermal comfort, we are satisfying the central physical needs for well-being and comfort. Machine learning based system control in combination with a decoupled air-conditioning and ventilation system allows for individual, demand based comfort, which puts the occupants back in charge of their environment and leads to increased workplace satisfaction.

[H]-Box
The effects of climate change are prevalent and clear: rising earth temperature, rising ocean level, erratic rainfall, bleaching of coral reefs etc. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted the importance of implementing the commitments laid out in the Paris Agreement in order to keep the temperature rise well below 2 Degree Celsius. To this end, we strongly believe that the use of clean and green energy should be more widespread and integrated to our infrastructure. The use of hydrogen as a universal energy carrier would support this goal. [H]-Box shall be the product that connects renewable energies to end applications. Using our expertise in hydrogen generation and conversion, [H]-Box is capable of transforming multiple energy sources (renewable energies, water and/or carbon dioxide) into hydrogen for storage or use. The hydrogen market is expected to reach between USD 11.43 billiion to USD 183.34 billion by 2023 with CAGR of 6%.

D2D Innovations

With more than 1 billion people without adequate housing, providing a decent home remains the most pressing global challenge. A McKinsey report highlights more than 9 trillion dollars cost just for the construction excluding land. In South East Asia alone, there remains a shortage of 38 million housing units. Yet, cities continue to prematurely demolish excellent built stock due to financial or other obsolescence reasons, creating 40% of the global waste stream. Our innovative strategy proposes that these two global challenges could be solved reciprocally by developing low-cost houses for uncaptured market and circular economy to deal with global climate struggle. Major innovation in D2D low-cost house remains pre-fabrication technology coupled with building components reuse, salvaged from demolition sites for operational and environmental efficiency. This product combines the design for disassembly approach with components reuse for minimal resources footprint and optimised embodied carbon emissions, making it the first of its kind in global construction practices. A major innovation remains the embedded circularity of reuse at both- the design and demolition phase of this house. Meeting the resource demand for adequate housing, optimum cost and minimal embodied emissions though D2D houses could be an exemplary milestone for housing sector sustainability with immense impact on SDG 11 and 12.